This customized strategy – one specific to your business – guides you towards defined goals.

Not sure where to begin?

Below are eleven tips to help you craft your social media business plan and take full advantage of all that social media has to offer.

11 Essential Elements of an Effective Social Media Business Plan

1. Track Your Starting Point

There’s no way to know how far you’ve come if you don’t know where you began.

Your first step is tracking your starting point. Identify where you are today – how you appear online – and capture that in an Excel sheet, Word or Google doc.

Here are a few things you’re looking for:

How often does your website show up in search?

Go to Google and type site: www.yourwebsite.com (replace the URL of your web site for www.yourwebsite.com), look at the top of the page, above the search results and below the menu and you will see a count of the number of search results. Write down this number which shows how many pages from your website are indexed by Google.

How often do you show up in search?

Go to Google and type your name in quotes. For example: “Rebekah Radice.” You’re looking for an exact match. The number you see at the top is the one you want. Write it down.

How often does your company show up in search?

Go to Google and type your company name in quotes, followed by the word “and,” (not in quotes), and the words city and state in quotes and separated by a comma. For example: “RadiantLA” and “Los Angeles, California.” See the number in the top left corner and write it down.

Go to each social network and write down the following metrics for each channel. You’re tracking growth, engagement, and conversation around your brand month over month. You can do the same for any competitors you’d like to track as well.

Social Media Metrics to Track

In his viral article, Avinash Kaushik explains the critical metrics all social marketers must track. The beauty in this is the complete obliteration of anything vanity – meaning, you will not track followers, fan numbers, or other meaningless metrics.

Here’s a breakdown of what you need to begin tracking today.

Conversation Rate

More than just mentions, your conversation rate helps you see the average number of comments per post in comparison to your number of followers or fans.

To get started, go to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Write down how many comments your content received over the last week. Now divide that number by your total number of fans or followers, then multiply by 100.

You can look at your posts separately, or use the general metrics in your Analytics/Insight section.

Amplification Rate

Rather than looking at each share rate separately, the amplification rate takes a holistic approach.

By tracking amplification, you’ll see how your content is showing up across all networks.

To track this, write down the number of re-pins, retweets, or shares of your content during the last week. Now divide that number by your total number of fans or followers.

Applause Rate

The applause rate helps you see what content your audience is sharing. The calculation is based on the number of “likes” (retweets, pins, etc.) each post gets.

To begin, go to each social network and write down the average number of likes per post.

Now divide that number by your total number of fans or followers, then multiply by 100.

The goal is to grow your online presence organically through social media. The more you share content, the more you interact online, the more your audience (and search engines) begin to take notice.

2. Know Your Audience

Before you hop on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or Instagram – get hyper-focused on your audience.

Who is your target market? Understand their area of expertise, what they’re talking about online ,and how you’ll use content to make a connection.

You’ll also want to do an online audit of your competition to see how (or if) they’ve reached your target audience and where opportunities still lie.

The key here is to cater your content to the specific needs of your audience. Write for your reader, not you, and not based on assumptions of what you think you know.

Stop trying to be everything to everyone.

3. Choose Your Social Network(s)

Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google Plus open the door to conversation.

But while many believe you need to spread yourself out on each channel above, I disagree.

Instead, identify where your target market is spending time online and then master that network.

Create an action plan designed with that network and audience in mind.

For example, if you’ve decided on Pinterest – what is your audience pinning? What content can you pin to attract their attention?

To get started, your plan of action might look something like this…

Sample Action Plan: Pinterest

Create 12 new boards with Pinterest board names based on keyword research – make them descriptive, optimized and enticing

Pin 2-3 pieces of content from blog, website, Facebook and others on a daily basis

Follow 10 relevant people and/or brands that pin similar content

Re-pin 2-3 pieces of their content daily to increase awareness

Design or pin eye-catching images with the possibility of “going viral”

Break this down into a content calendar with a separate column for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram with an example of which type of media you will share.

8. Use the Right Tools

With the daily barrage of streaming content, it can feel overwhelming to keep up and manage a social media presence.

That’s where the right tools come in.

They can take the overwhelm out of actively monitoring and engaging across various social networks.

Two of my favorites:

My daily management tool is Sprout Social. I can listen in on conversation (keyword monitoring) and engage in the conversation through their Smart Inbox.

It simplifies my life and streamlines communication.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Pinterest. Tailwind is my go-to tool for data, analytics and analysis.

If you’re spending any amount of time on Pinterest, you need Tailwind!

With it you can:

Publish content

Find relevant content to share

Identify trending pins

Check profile performance

Track popular boards, and much more!

9. Be an Expert Networker

Have you ever walked into a networking event and immediately started shouting details about your business? Of course not. Can you imagine what the response might be?

I would think that most would turn and walk away. Why? No one is interested in being sold.

They want to get to know you and they need to know that you’ve taken an interest in who they are.

The problem is, most people show up to any social networking site, screaming about their business.

Stop showing up on social media to throw up and instead start connecting in a meaningful (and productive) way.

10. Be a Relationship Collector

While we don’t collect business cards online, we do collect friends, followers and fans.

But, what are those friends or “business cards” actually worth?

Let’s imagine for a moment that each of your connections were worth $1000. Now think what that would mean to your bottom line if you could truly tap into those connections and leverage your relationships?

Dr. Ivan Misner, the Founder & Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization, says you only need four referral sources to succeed.

Top Referral Sources

Staff members – because no one understands your product or service better than someone who works for you

People you’ve give referrals to in the past

Anyone who has given you a referral in the past

Your community – people that are connected to you and already know, like and trust you.

Engage your top referrers and help them share your story. There’s nothing better than a third-party referral that can edify you and your business.

Make a commitment to stop collecting, and start contributing. It’s the relationships, not the numbers, that matter.

11. Track, Measure and Adjust

Are you wishing for social media success, or are you planning for it?

Put a plan in place that allows you to track, measure and assess your results.

Hey Buddy, Really a nice Post…!! A good business plan is the key to the success of each and every kind of business, though there are some people who do not believe in the power of a business plan, especially the young generation. Adding social media with business plan is a very good idea to connect our young entrepreneurs to the old business traditions. Here I am not saying that new generation do not have a sense of doing business. I am sure they are one step ahead from us, but being prepared for any emergency situation is always good.… Read more »

This is one of the best and most helpful articles I’ve read on creating a social media plan. (And I’ve read quite a few) Thank you for sharing you thoughts and processes. Definitely a lot of practical and actionable information.

Love the content calendar section. I’m not known for keeping the most tidy desk, but having a plan is essential to success on social.

Pinterest is one platform I haven’t been as intentional on. Do you find that the frequency of posting on that platform is just as important as the others?

Hey Rebekah. I must say it was a very good stuff that you shared. I found it very interesting especially, the discussion about tools for monitoring the chatter was very useful. keep sharing such stuff!!

Be a valuable resource. Create a consistent schedule. Use the right tools. Wow. These sound so simple and yet, I really, really need the reminder. It is challenging to be a successful marketing professional. I must be strategic and consistent and creative. This list of must haves is a great way for me to continue once I’m ready to launch.

Thanks, Rebekah, for being a generous resource for those of us who are just getting started.

Thanks for pointing out that if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there. It is one of my favourite facts.

This list will work even for me who’s been around for some time, I’m actually working on the checklist. My biggest challenge is consistency – regularly tweeting, blogging, and monitoring. Let me see how Sprout Social will help me become more effective. Thanks for sharing this Rebekah, always so resourceful.

Hi Rebekah ma’am, What an insightful post. This is very crucial and important for many small businesses and online marketers. I liked the referral sources from BNI. Thanks for the mention. It’s quite ironical how we as bloggers google so many things daily nut never ever think of writing our URL and searching. I have google alerts activated for them but they do nothing except cluttering my inbox. I never open them. Thanks for that free video tutorials and I just had one question. Can we store them to watch later. I am not in a position to watch the… Read more »

Fantastic article, Rehekah, and advice about developing an effective social media business plan. It can be a confusing place out there!

I love all your tips and what stands out to me right now is #8 – Be an Expert Networker. You are absolutely right! Connecting in a meaningful (and productive) way is key to developing relationships. This flows into your point #9 and making a commitment to stop collecting, and start contributing. It’s the relationships, not the numbers, that matter.

Thank you for your golden advice. I will be sharing this all over, my friend! 🙂

It’s so easy to get caught up in numbers Robin and forget that what we’re all trying to do is create relationships. We have to stop chasing some golden number and realize how important it is to get to know the community we’re cultivating.

Hi Rebekah, I love that you mentioned we ought to consider being excellent networkers! That’s exactly what this online game is as we want to be introduced to more prospects and customers. I teach my clients that one of your audiences they need to find and connect with are those who serve the same audience but in a different way. Start bringing them value, introducing them to people and connect with them with potential clients or customers. This is how business is conducted offline and it’s one way businesses ought to be building online as well. I always say the… Read more »

Such helpful info Rebekah. I’ve really been working toward basing my business decisions on data. So I’m going to use this guide so I have a starting point. One question that I can’t seem to figure out is: how do I find out how many people follow my blog? Is there a list somewhere on WP to find who subscribed? I’d like to get a better handle on that so I can thank people, and connect more with them. Also, I’m finding Instagram to be a very valuable visual platform. I see you recommend doing more on Pinterest. Have you… Read more »

Thanks for the useful resource – I think the hardest thing is to strike a balance (on Twitter at least) between expanding your network and being careful what other accounts you associated with. How much due diligence do you think a professional user should do before engaging with other users? Is this just paranoia?

It’s interesting that you say that Janice. I just had that same conversation with a client. Finding a balance can be difficult and will be different for each user. What you need to be comfortable with is your own limitations. What are you willing to share and what is your process for adding new connections? Know who and what you’re looking for and able to share.

Hey Rebekah Thanks for a great article This is just what the social media doctor ordered. My focus of late has been all about social engagement and your tips put me on the right track. #6 really hit a cord with me cause up until very recently I’ve taken a very haphazard approach to this and since I’ve put a plan and schedule in place it has helped me know clearly what I need to do put what I have already done. #7 Also really got me thinking about my existing network and how I connect with them on a… Read more »

I’m all bout tracking my progress this year, so I’m loving the Google tips you’ve given for tracking stuff in that way!

When you look at this list it looks daunting but when I dove in I’m tackling each one of them{ok, ok, minus monitoring chatter – that one I need to get on}. Some in greater detail than others but it’s epic to see I’m on the right track.

Great go to resource for getting your social arse in gear, Rebekah! {high five}

Hi Rebekah, Excellent advice for developing a social media plan. So many people take a scatter-shot approach to social media without figuring out what’s really working and where their audience is. I took your advice and Googled my URL. I had recently Googled my name but I hadn’t searched for my URL lately. The results were fascinating, I wish I had done this earlier. I had many more mentions than I had expected. Two funny links to my blog were sites that republished images I had in my blog and credited me. I wasn’t asked for, nor did I give,… Read more »

These 11 Steps are righton the Money Rebekah! The important part is putting it down on paper or Evernote or something easy to reference so you can keep track of what’s on deck and what’s working, so the adjust and refine mode works in your favor. Nice piece lady!